The widespread adoption of aerial, ground and sea-borne unmanned systems (UMS) for national security applications provides many advantages, most notably allowing people physical separation from dangerous tasks and environments. However, achieving effective high-performance control over UMS with limited manpower is a significant challenge, and most UMS deployed today require multiple-member operating crews. The control challenge is amplified dramatically when large numbers of UMS must work together, when the environment is complex, and when hostile adversaries are present
Furthermore, existing control methods are expected to be ineffective in directing cooperating teams of UMS operating in close proximity in rapidly-changing missions against dynamic and unpredictable adversaries. Autonomous UMS control is desired but technological, policy and cultural hurdles are expected to preclude the use of unsupervised autonomous solutions for the foreseeable future.
What is needed are systems and methods that enable a single operator to control UMS teams.